oh yeah reddit is a fucking hive of Byleth haters. but it sounds like my experience w/ AO3/the creative side is v different than yours. I'm sure it depends on the type of fics you look at, but all the writers I know/interact w/ LOVE & understand Byleth's ch & don't reduce them to self-insert at all

yepppp this is exactly it! a lot of players can't distinguish a PC from themself, so feel personally attacked when a character in game challenges the character they're playing as, regardless of how valid that challenge/that character's reason for challenging them is

imo, it's a pretty offbase critique. it's not exactly novel or shocking that the PC gets along with most of the supporting cast of recruitable characters to their party! and Byleth is FAR from the worst offenders in terms of chs never being challenged by others or the narrative if you ask me....

oh yeah totally different convo lol. but I didn't mean by the fandom, but chs in game. Byleth is pretty heavily disliked by much of the fandom, ime (FE fans in general tend to hate PCs). one of the more popular"critiques" is how (undeservedly, in their eyes) liked Byleth is by most of the cast

this isn't unique to Byleth (or FE in general), but something you see everywhere: characters (particularly female chs) that actually challenge the player character tend to be a lot more reviled than chs that are more positive/yesmen towards the PC--players don't like being challenged (ESP by women)

I was just pointing out that a lot of the most hated female characters in the fandom are also the most combative towards Byleth. that's often a BIG point of contention their haters bring up about them/why they think they suck

oh yeah I certainly don't think Byleth is as universally glazed as the fandom portrays them. there are definitely instances of other chs disliking or challenging that get ignored as well (hell a big reason I was first interested in dimileth is how Dimitri starts out outright mistrustful of Byleth!)

Leonie and Catherine both actually challenge Byleth in their supports and aren't immediately singing the PC's praises.... and they've got to be the two most hated female characters in the game after Rhea. gee, I wonder why that is...? 🤔

And there's no middle ground, no benefit of the doubt. You either rise to the ranks of Best Girl / Waifu, your flaws are just manageable enough that people will overlook/erase them, or you are just a bitch.

raising a glass for poor, villainized Rhea Fire Emblem, the biggest victim of fandom misogyny I've ever seen 😭